----- Daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra and Cascais -----
We met our group at the Hard Rock Lisbon and jumped in the Mercedes van for the ride to Sintra, the Pena Palace, Cabo de Roca, and Cascais.
First stop was the Pena Palace, built by German-born King Ferdinand in the 1800's.
Rick Steves calls it a "casserole Gothic towers, Renaissance domes, Moorish minarets, Manueline carvings, [and] Disney playfulness".
It was all of that and then some.
Yellow, red, white, blue
Click here to see a video of the whole castle from this side.
grey, it was all there
we waited in line to get inside
This must be good old King Ferdinand himself!
Just a simple little dining room
Hey, that looks like another castle! Actually there are a few castles in the Sintra area. Rumor has it that Madonna (now a resident of Lisbon) tried to buy one of them, maybe this one.
Maybe this is Kind Ferdinand...
There was some nice plaster work
The tour snaked through the castle
looking down at the line waiting to get in.
Here is the kitchen. What? No microwave?
Lots of shiny copper pots and plenty of room to cook up a big meal
After the tour
These photos were so good!
I had to post them all.
View from the back
From here you can see all the way to downtown Lisboa!
Read about the chapel
The famous stained glass window
OK, this is the king with the castle and chapel in the background. If you get up close and look at the stained glass window in this stained glass window...
...this is what you will see
Some really interesting stuff about the Palace!
Anyway, from the Palace, we were driven back down to the little town of Sintra where we were turned loose for a while to have lunch and shop on our own. This is where we ate.
This is my lunch. Cod!
Lorri and Mike
Debbie and Jack
Our view from the Terrace
Our table
A little shopping street in Sintra
It was a colorful little place!
It even had a pay phone...with people using it! Or maybe they were just trying to figure out what it was.
We bought pastries from the famous shop "Piriquita".
We did not eat at McDonalds
The National Palace dates from the 1500's and is still used today.
This is the most southwesterly point in Europe.
Sort of Like San Diego being the most southwesterly point in the US. Except for Hawaii.
Looks a bit like some places in SD.
That woman wouldn't move!
As we shall see, there are some nice sandy beaches in Portugal.
Back in the van we headed to Cascais, a resort town on the coast, 15 or 20 miles west of Lisbon. Unluckily, they were hosting an Ironman competition and many of the streets were closed to vehicular traffic.
Our driver/guide dumped us off a few blocks from the middle of town and we walked until we found a pub, as we were in dire need of refreshments, not having had a drop since lunch, at least an hour ago. Who ordered the little Guinness?
It was a warm day and the beach was crowded, sort of.
We did not see much of Cascais due to the Ironman and the limited amount of time we had there, but we saw enough that, later in our trip, Lorri and I decided to re-visit it!
